Of meteors, lunar eclipses and sea creatures

IT WAS SOMETHING straight out of science fiction. It started with a strange meteor flashing across our skies; the total eclipse of the moon; a dying U.S. spy satellite being shot down; earthquakes in such diverse places as off the coast of Norway and even in Nevada plus strange sea creatures discovered in Antarctica.
And what's more those National Blabber-type stories were all true. At least I think they were.
Some days, this scribbler usually spends his time scratching what little hair I have on my noggin, contemplating something to fill this space. But not today.
Actually I could fill a hundred or so pages. No, Mr. Editor, I won't attempt to do that.
So where do I begin: Oh, yes, that meteor , which I didn't see. Of course, someone over in Kamloops did. And then I went searching with the question upper-most in my mind: What happened to it?
In an AP story out of Spokane, some egghead profs said it probably burned up some 19 miles up over the Blue Mountains, near LaGrande, Oregon.
So that's one issue solved.
Next in line came the total eclipse of the moon, which I missed. Of course there was a reason for that, although I was looking into the sky for an answer. It seems most of us in B.C. missed the start, middle and end of it, for as the AP story goes, "it occurred before the moon rises."
Aw, shucks, now I'll have to wait until Dec. 20, 2010 for the next one.
One news story I did catch was a TV tape of the U.S. Navy shooting down that dying spy satellite somewhere west of Hawaii. That missile apparently hit the satellite and smashed the potentially toxic fuel tank into pieces no larger than a football. I'm still checking the skies over the Ol' Homestead for some errant "pigskin" whizzing through the air at a zillion miles an hour.
The next story which caught my eye was earthquakes in diverse places, as the Good Book says. It seems a 6.2 rumbled in the Norwegian terrority, known as the Arctic Svalbard islands. It's an isolated area so it's fortunate there were no casualties reported.
Another rattling experince occurred in what's known as the sparsely-populated Nevada gold country. It was measured at 6.0 and caused fires in grocery and truck stores in a little place called Wells, which has an historic street dating back to the late 1800s.
And then in my final tour of the newswires, I came across the headline:"Scientists capture giant Antarctic sea creatures."
After meteors, lunar eclipses, spy satellites and earthquakes there came creepy-crawly things such as sea spiders plus worms the size of dinner plates.
After absorbing the latest news from the heavens and earth, I started mulling over some recent newsletters I received from my old Jerusalem friend, Ernie Mauch (aka Elijah the Prophet).
In a number of them he "prophesized" about the sudden appearance of a gigantic Planet X heading towards Earth.
And then he followed this up that the monarchy was somehow involved and of a giant submarine.
And what's the name of this massive sub?
Well, it could be the Royal Navy's HMS Astute, which weighs in at 7,400 tons and can carry 38 Tomahawk missiles along with an 98-man crew. What's more, it will be operational in 2009 and based in Farlane on the Clyde in Scotland.
Whether one should put stock in such "prophecy," about a "hidden" planet and monarchy in a giant sub is highly questionable.
Then again I would have never believed in worms the size of dinner plates.
PREDICTIONS FROM 'THE SEER OF THE CENTURY' (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): John Watkins, a Philadelphia newspaperman, wrote in the Ladies' Home Journal in 1900, about a future full of subways, air-conditioning and even satellite TV. This is what he wrote about "automobiles being cheaper than horses." Remember this is 1900. "Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more ... Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known ... The horse in harness will be scarce, if, indeed, not scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today."